I'm
not suggesting that you run out and duplicate Jack's specific setup,
but rather that you develop a strategy for electronic charting that includes
similar tactics, somehow combining the flexibility and power of the PC
platform with the reliability and simplicity of the plotter. The good
sense of this proposition is validated by the ever-increasing number of
products that support it. While most PC charting programs can talk intelligently
about routes with most popular plotters, the conversation is not well-covered
in the NMEA 0183 protocol, and annoying glitches can happen. We’re
now seeing a variety of ways to simplify this situation.

For
instance, last winter C-Map introduced its clever PC Planner. The product
consists of rudimentary charting software, a blank user card, and a USB
dual-card reader. Pop the blank into one slot and a regular C-Map card
in the other, and you're viewing your charts on the full glory of
a PC monitor and making plans in the comfort of your nav station or home.
It's easy to write routes to the user card, and many plotters are
already able to read them (others may require upgrading). Garmin introduced
a variation on this theme; its card reader/writer lets you use existing
BlueChart cards with your PC or even create your own cards but does not
yet support route transferals (of course, a direct wire connection works
smoothly with Garmin's own plotters). Neither company's PC
product is as powerful as most full-bore charting programs, but they do
provide fast route making and--with computer and extra GPS aboard--able
backup systems and thus are attractive add-ons for those skippers who
focus most of their attention and budget on their plotters.

There
are also new redundancy strategies available to those who favor PC navigation.
One system that spins my beanie propeller is Maptech's Pocket Navigator
combined with the Compaq iPaq PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and Navman
GPS sleeve. Sitting in its USB cradle next to an onboard PC system, and
assuming some of Jack's route uploading discipline, it's easily
ready to serve as a backup plotter if needed or spiffy shore-side exploration
gizmo when wanted. Nobeltec is talking about similar PDA software that
would work efficiently with its Passport charts, and Fugawi's charting
software will work with Palm Pilots.

Meanwhile,
signs abound that the big boys of marine electronics will fully incorporate
PCs into their product lines sooner or later. About-to-be-released RayTech
4.1 will let C-Maps flow freely from PC to plotter, or vice versa, as
routes already do over Raymarine's proprietary networks. The company
is also planning to launch a marine computer dedicated to running RayTech
at a high level of redundant integration with its regular hardware. Furuno,
to my knowledge, does not yet have a competing product but could easily
enable one (or more) by opening its NavNet code to existing marine PC
hardware and software developers, as NavNet's underlying Ethernet
communications is already an open standard. And, finally, I have seen
the serious PC gear that Simrad has developed for its commercial fishing
and oilfield customers and could scale down to yachts any day now. In
short, while the "PC or Plotter" question will eventually
go away, it looks like I'll have plenty to tell you about in the
process.

Ben
Ellison has been a delivery captain and navigation instructor for nearly
30 years and was recently editor of Reed's Nautical Almanacs.